The pursuit of education is always captivating. The new pathways for online courses are being pioneered as the education continues to evolve in the technological revolution of the digital era. This has created potential among investors and startups to uphold new ideas for the future of online learning.
Also, the online education market is becoming flexible day by day with new learning modules being powered by innovative technologies. The e-learning marketplaces are providing a quicker and unique opportunity to clinch the courses from various tutors across the globe.
If you are one of the aspiring entrepreneurs in the e-learning marketplace sphere, be advised that starting an eLearning marketplace can be a challenging task. A lot of experience is needed to start and grow an eLearning business in a competitive environment like these says.
According to Forbes, the global revenue of eLearning will grow to $325 Billion by 2025, which is triple times of the revenue as it was in 2015. The overall share includes the revenue from online learning marketplaces, MOOC platforms, corporate training platforms, blended learning solutions, teaching aid software, and many more.
I would like to share some significant insights inside this article for an entrepreneur who plans to start a brand new eLearning marketplace, or a tutor planning to sell online courses to students with his/her own customizations.
However, finding an ideal e-learning marketplace software with an estimated cost and budget is also essential. Let’s dive into important tips that help you to build your own eLearning marketplaces with lesser investment.
Table of Contents
Strategies for building an eLearning marketplace:
E-learning marketplaces provide a great opportunity for growing an online entrepreneur with a passion for teaching and learning. If you are a subject matter expert who wants to use his/her skills around the entire globe by sharing knowledge, then these guides will provide an optimum business model which can be really profitable.
1. Determine your product niche:
Before you start sell the online courses from your own website, you need to find a specific product with all of the positive aspects of a lucrative business. You need to research, analyze, and examine different niches before starting an online business.
Your e-learning business should have enough clarity upon the industry and the skills you feel you can deliver to the learners. This is a broader niche where you make your business to achieve success.
So the product in your case would be the skill or subject you think you can teach the best to the online learning community.
2. Evaluate market research:
Validate your product doing market research and competition with the trending products in markets. It is deeper to perceive product sustainability in your business idea. Take a thorough look at the market that can make or break your business. Research your customer’s need that they are facing with your competitors. This will help you to define your branding and positioning your product at a height in the market. After researching the customers need you can outline a summary of your product.
3. Build your online platform:
Building a platform is the preliminary step in the process for the e-learning process. With the rapid development of technology, it has become an easy and convenient option to sell online courses from your own website.
There are different ways to build your own marketplace.
1. Code from Raw/Scratch:
Starting from the scratch is best suited for launching large-scale websites and then monetizing it using a custom business model.
- You would need an in-house team to initiate the process from scratch. The in-house team of technology experts is responsible for the testing, designing, development, and maintenance of the website.
- The development team should have good knowledge of different tech-stacks required for the website development. They are responsible for adding new features, and also modifying the website in the later stages.
- Choose the tech stack carefully as the flexibility, scalability, and customizability are completely depended upon the tech team’s skills and the stack you choose.
Cost: As the complete website is coded and maintained by your own in-house team, time and cost needed are quite high. The cost of the regular maintenance will be lesser if you outsource your developers.
2. Closed Source SaaS solutions:
- If you need a readymade solution in which you can simply create your website using a GUI, choose SaaS or PaaS based website builder providers.
- The SaaS vendors do all the coding for you and you simply set up your site after buying from them.
- The hosting is provided and completely managed by the SaaS vendor.
- Such e-learning software solutions have several in-built features, but also there are many limitations. You can’t add features according to you as you don’t have the source code with you. You need to add additional paid API’s to your website to add more features.
Cost: You need to pay subscription costs for monthly or yearly to the SaaS vendors to use their readymade platform. You need to pay a recurring payment to retain your site active. Therefore, the cost will be more over a period of time. Many marketers’ provide websites at a cheaper price excluding the additional cost of LMS, advanced authoring tools, API’s for video streaming, and also interactive whiteboards. You might get some cheaper options if you can compromise with the advanced features, however, it is not recommended though. Such solutions are best when you can afford the recurring costs and don’t want to get indulged in the technicalities of the website development and maintenance.
3. Open-Source code: Self-hosted scripts
If you want to ready to launch websites without possessing any coding skills, self-hosted scripts can help you the best way. This is the most suitable and easy option to create an e-learning platform.
- You can get the integrated authoring tools, LMS platforms, and payment gateways depending upon the vendor and cost of the platform.
- You can go live with a readymade solution in a few days with many advanced features.
- You can edit and modify the source code to customize your website according to your need as you have the coding fragment with you. You can add new features and also remove any inappropriate feature on the website if you have the coding knowledge.
- You can also outsource or hire from any third-party vendors to take care and maintenance of your website.
Cost: The cost is quite affordable. Only a one-time cost is needed to buy the script from the vendor. As these are readymade websites and no coding is involved for you, the cost is reasonable. You can do personalization of your website by adding new features with an additional cost from many vendors in the market.
Takeaway:
To be able to compete and win in the online education business, you need to address the talent and require a lot of considerations. You need to analyze the niche market and target audience. Your platform should be user-friendly with appropriate content. There should not any complexity with the functionality to build the project. If you want to build your unique e-learning marketplace or wish to sell online courses for your own website, be thorough about the tasks to be done on time and within budget.
Author Bio:-
Kathy Alameda is a content strategist at PinLearn. She develops educational technology plans and online learning strategies for schools, businesses, universities in the USA & Other country. She is also an author and researcher on effective e-learning programs.